


(Half of) Everything is Fate

by Niki



Category: GoldenEye (1995)
Genre: Fix-It, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-28
Updated: 2016-04-28
Packaged: 2018-06-05 03:55:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6688195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Niki/pseuds/Niki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>James's wrist is blank but for a scar.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	(Half of) Everything is Fate

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thedevilchicken](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thedevilchicken/gifts).



> I loved your letter, it gave me millions of ideas and I wanted to write them all! ...this wasn't one of them. But working on the then abandoned epic backstory/get together fic I never actually finished this idea punched me in the gut so I had to write it.
> 
> (I wrote a more canonical fix-it story too. Hope at least one of them pleases you!)
> 
> A version of the "everyone is born with the name of their 'perfect mate' on their wrist" trope.

James's wrist is blank but for a scar. It's too much of a risk to carry your soulname in the business.

He remembers what it said, of course, the word seared into his mind. But he's made sure no other living person knows it, not even the people recruiting him. There's no record of it anywhere.

It's not like he'd actively search for his match, he's not even sure he believes in their existence. 

Still, the first time he met Alec he thought... Doesn't matter. The name was wrong.

Alec's wrist is as devoid of words as his own, his scar looking old and smooth, smoother than James's. There was no reaction from him when he heard the usual “Bond, James Bond” line either. Not that there would be. But if there's anyone James would have wanted to... well. Doesn't matter.

And then Alec is dead, and nothing matters for a while.

* * *

The first time James hears the name 'Janus' mentioned his heart skips a beat, even as his face betrays nothing. 

So. It's to be an enemy, then. Head of a crime syndicate in Russia. Did he ever expect it to be easy?

The names are never a promise, after all, not a free ticket to a happy ending. The only thing they guarantee is that one person you could be compatible with.

* * *

When he sees Janus's face for the first time, hears the voice he hasn't been able to forget in all these years, his heart stops again, only to start pounding away, double time.

“Hello, James.” 

Just that, just his name, and was that the name carved by destiny on the man's wrist?

Guess they'll never know.

* * *

“Not James, then,” the man says, grinning, as if violating someone's soulwords is business as usual for him.

“Is yours?” Natalya asks, scornfully, and does she imagine it, or is there a millisecond's pause there?

* * *

She wonders if she should mention the exchange to James but never does, not even when berating him for his coldness.

(Her words say 'Sam.')

* * *

“Do you know what it said, my wrist?” James asks, almost casually, looking at the faded scar on Alec's hand, the same hand that is the only thing keeping the man from falling. “Janus.” 

Alec laughs, and it's not a happy sound.

“So I had to be broken to be yours?”

James doesn't say anything, and he goes on.

“Mine was my salvation – with an English name on my wrist I was considered worth saving. I burnt it off with acid long before I was recruited. Yet I've always known, James.”

The way he says his name, the way he's always said it...

“God _damn_ you, Alec!”

And he pulls him up.


End file.
